


Forbidden Fruit

by stjarna



Series: Engineering vs Biochem - 2017 (Team Engineering) [2]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Engineering VS Biochem, Episode: s01e06 FZZT, F/M, Fanwork Friday, Team Engineering, friends to lovers (ish), mention of religious topics (not sure how to tag this but don't want to offend anyone), prompt: tempted, s1 au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-12
Updated: 2017-07-12
Packaged: 2018-12-01 11:11:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11485164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stjarna/pseuds/stjarna
Summary: An alternate S01E06 "FZZT" missing scene AU. [Prompt: Tempted]Written for Fanwork Fridays organized by TFSN on Tumblr.





	Forbidden Fruit

**Author's Note:**

> Big thank you to @unbreakablejemmasimmons for beta reading!
> 
> Graphic by me (This is starting to be fun :) )

Jemma Anne Simmons doesn’t believe in God or any higher entity. There’s no scientific evidence. If anyone asked, she’d say that science is her religion.

It wasn’t God that saved her today. It was science. Science, teamwork, impeccable timing, and yes, maybe Ward’s jumping out of an airplane after her.

But Ward’s show-off jump would have been for naught if science hadn’t found an antiserum first.

Science. Her own efforts. And Fitz’s.

Her lab partner. Her best friend.

_Beside me the whole damn time._

Jemma Anne Simmons doesn’t believe in God.

That’s why, as she fell through the air to what she presumed to be certain death (merely a matter of what would get to her first: the alien virus or crashing against the ocean’s surface), she didn’t pray to a nonexistent god to magically save her; she called out Fitz’s name instead, because he’d been with her the whole damn time. Somehow, it gave her comfort to think he’d be with her just a little while longer, see it through until the end.

_Beside me the whole damn time._

There’d been something in his eyes when those words had left his mouth. Some sort of realization. Painful and sad and almost shocking.

And Jemma can’t help but wonder if it had been the same realization that had hit her in the exact same moment. A feeling so strong, unexpected, and unfamiliar, she’d had to turn away from him.

Somewhere in the back of her head, she still hears him scream. Somewhere before her inner eye, she still sees him staring at her in disbelief.

_Beside me the whole damn time._

Until today.

When it had almost been over.

It’s surreal when her arms curl around his neck, and his wrap around her waist and they hug each other tighter than she’s ever hugged anyone else. She’s back on the Bus and the rest of the team has granted them privacy in the lab. The lab where they created the antiserum that saved her mere hours ago.

It’s surreal because they’ve hugged each other so many times before, and yet somehow it feels like they’re two completely different people now, changed by what happened, rattled to their very cores. Her hair still smells like the ocean and when her hands wander up his neck—because she can’t seem to stop them from exploring and ensuring that they’re really both still alive—she can feel the bump where she hit him with the fire extinguisher. She thinks she hears him whimper, his face buried against her neck, but then again, maybe it’s her own quiet sobs echoing in her ears. She feels his salty tears mixing with the salt of the ocean clinging to her hair, while her own tears leave a watery trail on his neck.

Jemma knows they’ve been hugging longer than may be appropriate for two friends. She tries to pull away, and yet, she can’t bring herself to let go entirely. Her cheek glides against his as she slowly tries to move away, until her nose suddenly touches his and his breath brushes against her lips, mingling with her own. She can’t bring herself to move any further; she can’t bring herself to open her eyes, and yet, no matter how strong the urge, how big the temptation, she can’t bring herself to close the narrow gap between their lips, either.

They stand in silence, frozen in time and space, their ragged breaths and her anxious heartbeat the only things Jemma’s body registers.

“What are we doing?” he whispers against her lips, and his breath feels warm and inviting.

“I don’t know.” Her voice is almost silent, nothing more than words somehow finding their way to the surface with her exhale. “Something I’ve longed to do without even knowing; something I don’t dare to do.”

Please, give me the strength, she prays to a god she doesn’t believe in, and no one replies.

They remain frozen. Silent. Their noses still touching, inhaling each other’s breaths. Her hands still curled around his neck, fingers absentmindedly playing with his hair. His arms wrapped loosely around her waist, but tight enough that Jemma can feel the slight tremor in his hands.

Jemma feels dizzy from it all—drunk, almost.

She’s not sure why she starts thinking about the Bible, of all things, but somehow his lips are like the forbidden fruit and his breath is the snake, whispering against her skin to taste it.

But kissing him seems like risking paradise: losing a friendship so effortless, so comfortable, so safe, without knowing what would be waiting on the other side.

Hell? Earth? Purgatory? A different kind of Paradise?

But then, she’d fallen from Heaven already today and survived, and he’d been waiting for her on safe ground. Waiting for her as he’d always done. As he’d always do.

“I want you, Fitz,” Jemma admits, digging her fingers deeper into his curls. “But I don’t dare. I don’t know how.”

She feels another tear snake down her cheek, and moments later tastes the salty water on her tongue.

She’s still breathing. Her heart’s still beating. Her body’s still working. Routine. Reflexes. Biology. Science.

But her mind is hazy, as if their mixed breaths had turned into fog and found their way into her thoughts.

When his lips suddenly brush against hers, Jemma feels like she’s falling and flying at the same time. She gasps, trying to purse her lips, trying to respond to his tentative invitation, but it takes her muscles a moment to be able to react.

Their kisses taste salty and she can’t tell if it’s from the ocean or from the tears sliding down their cheeks. The tears mix with laughter, and their laughter tastes sweet. Her tongue tingles with unfamiliar flavors, sensations, and emotions and her hands bury themselves deeper into his hair.

She cries until she laughs and she laughs only to sob again while her lips pull back before surging forward again, hungry, longing.

Eventually, their foreheads rest against each other as both try to catch their breaths. Jemma pulls back, just enough to look at him, just enough to drown in his eyes.

Slowly, her tears subside, and a smile brightens her face instead, as her thumbs gently wipe away his tears.

She’s surprised when he starts laughing and yet is unable to stop herself from joining in before managing to burst out, “What?” in slight confusion.

He tucks a strand of her hair behind her ear, before his palm glides down to cup her cheek, his blue eyes gazing at her with a mix of adoration and mischief. “Thought I’d told you to try and keep your hands off me today.”

She can’t help but laugh out loud, throwing her head back, before smiling back at him, pressing her body closer against his, staring into his soul und doing her best to give him a smoldering look. “Well, how am I supposed to resist such temptation? A man, so stubborn and loyal he’d break quarantine to help his best friend save her own life with science?”

The smile on his face fades for a moment at the reminder of what happened mere hours ago. “Together?” he whispers, pressing his hands a bit more firmly against her lower back and pulling her closer.

“Beside you the whole damn time,” Jemma replies, before leaning closer, because whatever hesitation she’d had earlier about tasting the forbidden fruit and being expelled from Paradise is long forgotten.

After all, Jemma Anne Simmons doesn’t believe in God, so why bother with biblical cautionary tales?

Jemma Anne Simmons believes in science.

And maybe, just maybe, she could be convinced to believe in love.


End file.
